questions & answers

Question: Hello I own my Mobile home with a clean title but rent the space. I have been in the same park for four years. I am under a written month to month rental agreement that I signed in November of 2016. There is no expiration date on the rental agreement nor has it been terminated. New management has taken over and are treating all tenants as holdover. Since a month to month tenancy is self renewing, doesn't new management have to terminate the existing rental agreement before I am considered a holdover tenant? Further, they have issued a 14/30 cure quit notice on the demand to sign a lease.

Answer: As a general rule, a new landlord must honor any existing rental agreement between a current tenant and the prior owner. Under the Arizona Mobile Home Parks Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (A.R.S. Title 33 Chapter 11), when a rental agreement with a specified term expires, that arrangement becomes a month-to-month tenancy unless and until the landlord or tenant requests a new written rental agreement. If the landlord and the tenant agree to the term of a rental agreement, then the agreement may be for any term. If the landlord and the tenant disagree on the term of the rental agreement, then the agreement shall be for twelve months. (A.R.S. 33-1413). A true “holdover” tenant is a tenant who remains in possession without the landlord’s permission after a rental agreement expires (A.R.S. 33-1483). So the issue here is clearly whether or not your agreement with the prior owner has expired. If the new owner is considering every tenant in the park to be a holdover tenant, then the new owner may be misunderstanding that they may only request that current tenants sign new leases once those tenants’ agreements with the prior owner have expired. You may wish to express your concerns with the new owner in writing. Without knowing all the details of your particular situation, it is difficult to provide any information more specific than that.